


Carved in stone

by Gabrielique (Sacchan90)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, post briarwood arch, someone protect cassandra she deserves to be happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-23 01:11:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7460739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sacchan90/pseuds/Gabrielique
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The Briarwoods stole her teenage years from her, twisted her into something they could use as they pleased, an accomplice of her own misery.</i><br/>There isn't much to build on, barely enough to hold on, but it will have to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carved in stone

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by tumblr user [ grannymoray ](http://grannymoray.tumblr.com) : "write me cassandra making graves for her family after the briarwoods have been destroyed”
> 
>  
> 
> Also since Taliesin gave us a better age for Percy and Cassandra I decided that I'm gonna fight him because Cassandra is probably still in her teenage years and it broke me.
> 
> Guys, I have so many feels.
> 
> PS: I remind you that I don't have a beta and that english is not my first language, so I apologize for the mistakes.

Re-learning how to be Cassandra it’s not an easy task.  
  
The last time Cassandra has been Cassandra, she was barely thirteen, nothing more than a child whose mind was filled with dreams of great balls, dresses made of rich fabrics, of secret kisses in the garden.  
  
The Briarwoods stole her teenage years from her, twisted her into something they could use as they pleased, an accomplice of her own misery.  
  
There isn’t much to build on, barely enough to hold on, but it will have to do: Cassandra didn’t survive just to give up once finally able to breath and think freely.  
  
She decides to start from closure. For herself, for her brother, for her family.  
  


Cassandra doesn’t know -doesn’t remember- what happened to the bodies exactly, a part of her fears that the Briarwoods burnt them to get rid of the evidence preaching that it was necessary to avoid the spreading of the disease- but an empty grave is better than none.  
  
A place where she can go and cry, a place where she can go and say hi - and maybe one day, say goodbye- it’s where Cassandra needs to start.  
  
The absences of the graves didn’t occur to her until Percy pointed it out -she was too young, too wounded, too manipulated to stop and ask herself what happened exactly.  
  
But Percy has been in the mausoleum, he was the one who has noticed because he was the one expecting to find them. Because he should have found them.  
__  
“Where are they buried, Cassandra?”  
“They…” Cassandra has stopped, then she has frowned, then she has looked up at her brother  "There are no graves.“ she has felt her throat closing in a too familiar way. "Nobody buried them, Percy.”  
And in that the moment she has decided.

The empty mausoleum under the castle that Cassandra choose for her family was never supposed to be filled so quickly, and yet it takes only one day for the tombstones to be placed around the walls of the mausoleum, covering the space supposed to be the last resting place of he family.  
There are no bodies, so there are no coffins.  
The craftsmanship of the tombstones is not worth of the status of those whose names are carved on them, but at the moment the hard work of the people of Whitestone is needed elsehwere.  
  
Frederick, Johanna, Julius, Vesper, Oliver, Whitney, Ludwing.  
Loving father, loving mother, loving brother, loving sister.  
  
And then, in the lower part of the wall, enough space for two more tombstones:  one for herself and, if he will choose it, one for Percy.  
  
Hopefully, she will not be forced to make that decision for him.  
  
There is no real comfort in seeing the names in front of her, the ache is still there, raw and powefull, but her spirit feels a little bit lighter and, right now, Cassandra will take anything to just feel something that is not absolute misery.  
  
She will take a small consolation in the fact that the Briarwoods didn’t erased them completely, that two de Rolos are still alive to tell the story of those who died that night.  
  
Their names carved in stones mean that they lived, that Cassandra once had a family that loved her and that she loved as much -that she still loves.  
  
It means that Cassandra can reclaim her rightful name  
  
It means that Cassandra has a past and from that she can build her future.  
  
It means that Cassandra can start to move on.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it and that maybe you will stop by my tumblr [ gabrielique ](http://gabrielique.tumblr.com) to say hi or prompt me more stuff.


End file.
